Orange Oceans
by GeminiRoseHearts
Summary: Jake English lives simply with his grandmother on a house on the beach of an island. He gets up, watches movies, goes in the small fishing town, fishes at his pier or on his boat, and comes home. His normal routine is broken when he finds an injured teen passed out on the sand; Dirk. Attracted as Jake is to him, is Dirk a little bit more than a bit abnormal?
1. Chapter 1

Summary: Jake English lives simply with his grandmother on a house on the beach of an island. He gets up, watches movies, goes in the small fishing town, fishes at his pier or on his boat, and comes home. His normal routine is broken when he finds an injured teen passed out on the sand; Dirk. Attracted as Jake is to him, is Dirk a little bit more than a bit abnormal?

Rated: M for possible hardcore yaoi later and some mild violence

Pairing: JakeDirk

A/N: Hey guys, soooooo sorry I haven't been updating my 'A Thousand Years' fic! I've been so busy with schoolwork and I've had a major writer's block. Anyways, I wrote this a while ago and only just now got around to posting it. I hope you enjoy it, and please leave a review when you're done, it's help me a lot.

~Alley Cat

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**== Be Dirk**

Darkness. That's all it ever was in the ocean. At least, until he swam towards shore. That's when the water started to get brighter, more colorful. The fish were better tasting as well. But, the water began to smell bad. And occasionally human trash would float by. He'd made the mistake of swallowing a fake plastic fish before. It's not fun to throw up underwater.

Glowing orange eyes pierced the infinite darkness. He was hungry, but there was no suitable fish nearby. Unusual, seeing as tropical fish are always migrating above his territory to get to shore. Not dwelling to much on this, he swam towards shore, his powerful, smooth fish tail beating the water. As he moved smoothly through the water, reaching closer to shore, he spotted a fish. A large silver one, he couldn't recall the name. Whatever it was, he knew it was edible, and he was going to eat it.

Silently stalking it, the merman's ear fins twitched into place, detecting and predicting the moves of the fish. He took a deep breath, filtering oxygen through his gills, and held it, so as the fish wouldn't hear his breath. Floating closer and closer, the claws on his fingers ready, he was ready to dart forward when suddenly, the fish was yanked out of the water by a net.

What. The. Hell.

That was his fish!

**== Dirk: Retrieve fish**

Dirk was more than a little annoyed. He was furious. Who the hell had stolen his food?! He had to work hard for that shit!

Emotions boiling with anger, his animalistic instincts took over, and he shot up towards the surface, forgetting his kind was rare and he could be captured. All that mattered was his hunger and the fish.

Bursting above the water, he closed the gills under his ribs and breathed surface air, ready to yell. He stopped however, when he spotted the tanned human on a white fishing boat. He was hauling a net unto the boat, his back to Dirk. The sky was a stormy, cloudy gray, a tell tale sign of a storm.

The shock of seeing a human snapped Dirk back to his human logic, and he ducked underwater, hiding, his heart pounding.

Oh god, he'd almost been seen!...

The merman swam away, scared for his life. He had heard horror stories on what humans would do to merpeople.

Thunder rumbled, muffled by the water, so Dirk mistook it for his own raging heart beats. The water was pelleted with rain. It pattered on the surface of the water above Dirk, who stopped. Come to think of it, he'd never watched or even seen a human before, just heard stories. _I wonder what it's like..._

His curiosity getting the better of his fear, he slowly swam back over, edging a safe distance from the human. Sticking his head above the water, he watched the human male in his boat.

Dirk could see the human swaying as the waves began to rock his boat. He barely noticed the waves, simply bobbing up and down with them as they weren't huge. Despite their small size, the rain water on the white, smooth surface of his boat, and the rocking of the waves seemed to cause the tanned male to lose his balance. All at once, he slipped on the wet deck of the boat, and fell into the water, flailing about. Dirk could hardly figure out why; the human seemed strong enough to swim. What Dirk didn't realize was the actual freezing temperature of the water, it being rather close to winter, the storm turning the water cold, and this spot being in rather deep water where no sun reflected heat. Not knowing this, all he did know was that the human was drowning.

Dirk, out of sheer protective instinct, shot forward. His animal instinct screamed for him to stop. This was a human, a HUMAN, some land creature that would sell him to the higher ups, where he could be put in an invisible wall container and fed dead fish, or at worst, torn apart with sharp tools at some freakish, torture chamber to look at how his body works. His human emotions, ones of pity, panic, sympathy, and protectiveness shut all that out as he raced back to the human. As soon as he got there, the human was sinking. He swam under the human, about two feet under his kicking legs, who's owner was struggling to grab ahold of the boat. It was still slippery, and he couldn't get a good grip. Dirk paused for a fraction of a second to study this creature with legs.

His legs were tanned and muscly, as were his arms. He had some strange material wrapped (was it wrapped?) around his torso, and hips. There was holes for his legs, arms and neck. Severely confused, the merman was about to think more on this, when the human's foot swishing past his nose, jolting him back to reality and the situation at hand.

_Okay_ he thought determinedly _I'll push him up on three. _

_One._ Dirk swam a little close.

_Two._ Another foot and half.

_Thr-_

The human kicked Dirk in the face. The good news was the male had pushed off of Dirk's face with his foot to jump and grab a beam on the boat. The bad news was the merman was now dazed, his nose hurt, and frankly a little pissed. Because even trying to save someone, you'd get pissed too if they kicked you in the face, accidentally or not.

The black haired male hauled himself up, and Dirk watched as he ran to a covered compartment, while he meanwhile was seeing if his nose was bleeding. The boat rumbled like a sea-beast, and the merman was spooked, nearly swimming off, but not quite having the time.

Too bad, he could have avoided so much trouble if he had.

A larger than the rest wave hit the boat, which swung around and whacked him in the head. Bright lights danced in his eyes, and Dirk watched dazedly as the boat, and the human he tried to save, speed away back to shore. Dirk watches him go, and muttered to himself, "You're fucking welcome..."

He tried to move, but his limbs felt heavy. It was as if his arms and tail were slowly turning to stone. He was sinking, and in shallow water, that wasn't good. The current here was sure to rolling him towards even shallower water, where the coral was sharp and dangerous. Black darkness ebbed away at his vision, and the last thing Dirk felt was the current drifting him toward treacherous shallow water.

Fuck his life.

**== Dirk: Be the human**

Jake cranked his boat to go faster, and raced towards shore. Rain pelleted his wind shield, and heavy, cold wind battered his boat, as well as waves created from the storm.

He had gone out fishing that afternoon, in hope to catch a few fish for dinner, and maybe tomorrow as well. His favorite food was fish, and he regularly ate fish that he caught out in his boat. Mostly due to his grandmother's *coughcough**HORRIBLE*** cooking.

He hadn't gotten any fish, despite the hours he'd waited. By the time evening drew near, he grew discouraged, and started pulling up his net. To his surprise, a fish was caught in it. A large tuna, perhaps, but he couldn't be sure.

Jake's spirits lifted, and he tried to haul the fish in the boat. A flash of orange caught his attention from in the water, and he hesitated to look where he thought the orange flash came from. The sky rumbled, and it poured rain.

"Shit..." he mumbled. The extra water slicked the deck, and with one small misstep, Jake had slipped into the water.

Despite fishing nearly all the time, Jake couldn't swim against the cold water. His body went into shock, and he forgot how to swim. The tanned boy flailed about, and was sinking. In his panic, Jake was sure he saw a huge fish, nearly as big as he was, coming up under him.

Scrabbling at the boat, he felt something under his foot. Panic over taking his brain, he didn't stop to think what it was, but rather took advantage of the asset and kicked off it. With the propulsion, he just managed to grab a side bar, and hauled himself unto the boat. Racing towards the steering wheel, not even allowing himself much time to recover, Jake cranked the boat on. A wave pushed the boat, and he was sure he heard a loud thump, but he paid no mind. All he could think of was getting out of there.

Reaving the engine, Jake steered the boat towards shore, his body shivering, his head full of panic, and his heart sinking at the thought of eating his grandma's cooking.

As he reached shore twenty minutes later, docked his boat, and walked to his house, he just hoped there was leftovers of his cooking somewhere.

**== Jake: Enter the room containing your future doom.**

That's means the kitchen. It wasn't usually a place of hell, but when grandmother is cooking, horrible bouts of trips to the bathroom usually occur later. Jake's grandmother, Grandma Harley, a surprisingly young woman for a grandmother, was cooking something that was smoking on the oven.

"Hi Grandma..." Jake said, depressed. He sat down at the table, having showered and dried off.

"Hello Jake...what's wrong?" She asked him, coming over an serving something unto a plate in front of him.

"I didn't get any fish today...and there was this huge one too." he complained. _It would fed me for weeks too..._ he thought.

"Well, I'm sure you tried your best." Grandma said "Anyways, eat what I made you! It's lasagna!"

Jake looked at it, and almost gagged.

"Are you sure..." he mumbled, but he choked it down anyways.

Oh, if only he'd gotten that fish.

**== Jake: Wake up to horrible indigestion at 3 am.**

He knew that it wasn't lasagna.

After spending a painful hour in the bathroom, Jake stumbled into his room and looked out the window at the ocean. He admired the dark water, and the mysterious, darkened sandy beach. But what really caught his eyes were the bright moonlight. Not the whitish-silver color. But the way it glowed and stood out from the rest of dull, black, gray and white scenery. Everything was serene, and all seemed well. Accept for...

He saw an orange and slightly bloody creature was near the rocks, laying still, the moonlight reflecting a pale skin color but something bright orange.

Shocked, but curious, Jake got dressed and ran outside. He wondered if it was that huge fish he was going to catch earlier that day, swept ashore from the storm. Stopping a little ways away from the fish, he...no it wasn't a fish.

Quite the opposite.

It was a bloody, injured human. Half in the water, and barely breathing.

And he was completely naked.

Jake was pretty sure he'd pass out.

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A/N: I hoped that was good. Please leave a review, with some feedback, and I'll try to work on my writer's block.

~Alley Cat


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: OMG YOU GUYS I AM SO SORRY I HAVEN'T BEEN UPDATING. I've been so caught up in school work, it's not even funny. But I finally got this done, and I'm sorry it's so short. Next chapter won't take as long to come out, I promise.

Thank you to the wonderful people who liked, followed, and left reviews on this story. I LOVES YOU~ Anyway, here's the second chapter, and again, I promise next one won't take so long to update.

~Alley Cat

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== Jake: Check for signs of life.

After he got over the initial shock of finding a battered human laying in the sand unconscious (naked no less), he automatically bent down to examine him. Hooking his hands under the boy's thin, pale arms, Jake drug him further away from the water and unto the soft, dry sand, where the tanned boy looked at him.

Jake was sure at first that he might have come across a drowned person, but as he put his cheek near the unconscious teen's nose, and used his left hand to feel for a pulse in his neck, Jake felt soft breathes against his cheek, and a steady pulse against his fingers.

Sighing in relief, he ran back to the house. Slamming the door and sprinting upstairs, he opened the door to his grandmother's room and approached her bed, shaking her awake.

"Wah...huh?" she grumbled, as he found herself shaken awake by Jake at four in the morning.

"Grandma, there's an unconscious guy outside on the sand. He's alive, I already checked, but he's pretty bashed up, and he had no clothes." Jake whispered urgently. Upon hearing 'unconscious', his grandmother sat up immediately, and said, swinging her legs off the bed, "Go and get a large towel and wrap him in it, then being him inside."

Jake nodded, and ran upstairs, fetching a large towel and running back outside to do as his grandma had said. Picking up the now wrapped teen bridal style, Jake brought him inside. There, he lay him down on his bed, and waited for Grandma Jade.

She entered the room, medical bag in hand, long hair tied back and glasses on. She placed her things down, and said without looking up, "Get some clothes for him. He must be freezing, outside during this time of year." Jake obeyed, scampering about to fetch a pair of clean boxers, one of his shirts, and long pants. Handing them to his grandma, he now sat back and watched as she worked.

She first slipped the boxers in the limp boy, to at least give him some dignity. Then, getting out alcohol and bandages, she treated the painful looking wounds on his feet and lower legs. They were clustered, and appeared to have been made by the teen's feet being drug or bashed against sharp rocks or coral. Working carefully, and pulling out any stray bits of coral, sand, or foreign bits, Grandma worked carefully until his feet and calves were cleaned and bandaged. Eyes moving over his bruises torso, she found no other injuries, she dressed him in the shirt and pants, before sighing and standing up, brushing off her hands and cleaning up.

"Watch him until he wakes up." she told Jake "Make sure he knows he's okay, and where he is. And while you're at it, maybe try and find out what happened to him, and where he came from."

Jake nodded. "Alright." He watched over the teen as he slept, and mapped at his features. Tucked under the blanket of Jake's bed, only his face and shoulders were visible. Jake studied his face.

The boy's skin was pale and smooth, and even seemed to have an unnatural yet gorgeous glow to it. His facial features were slim and soft looking, with a small blush staining his cheeks, and long blond eyelashes adorning his close eyes. His hair was spiky, pointing all in mostly one direction, and it had an almost white shade of titanium blond. His graceful-looking face curved downward in a smooth motion to his slim neck, then to his skinny shoulders. Jake's shirt hung off one shoulder, and there on that shoulder was an old, white scar.

In short, the teen was stunning, and the buck-toothed fisher couldn't help but be amazed and quite attracted to the other's almost mystical beauty.

Jake was startled out of his thoughts when his grandmother entered again, sticking her head in to say, "Come and bring a tray of food I made to him. He must be starving." She saw his face and rolled her eyes. "Don't worry, it's soup I heated up from a can and some orange soda." Pulling away her head, Jake heard her walking down the hallway and into her room.

The black haired boy did as he was asked, and stood up from his seat in a chair next to the bed. Walking to the door, he looked back one more time, before walking out to fetch the tray of food from downstairs.

== Dirk: Awaken

A bright, artificial light stung brilliant orange eyes as they opened. Dirk blinked furiously, trying to adjust to the light as he sat up. He looked at his surroundings.

_Where am I? How did I get here?_ he thought furiously. The merman looked down.

_I'm..laying in something soft and cushiony, probably some odd nest...and I have on...material?_ He fingered the shirt and pants. _This looks like those things humans wear-_

Dirk inwardly gasped. _Oh god...a HUMAN found me. I'm in a human's nest, a human's home...Did they see me with my tail? No, if they had, they've had sold me out while I was still unconscious..._ The blond was very confused.

_Let's backtrack...I was hunting a fish...I tried to save a human...I got knocked out...and..I guess I must have been tossed around in the shallows on coral and rocks, and then I washed ashore...the tide must have gone down, my fins and gills dried out, and I went into human form. Then...a human found me, and out of sheer humanly instinct-do humans have protective instincts?-took me in and treated my wounds...that all sounds about right._ His revery was interrupted when the human walked into the room, the same he recognized he tried to save from drowning. He was holding a flat sheet, with two kinds of container devices on it. He smiled when he saw Dirk was awake and sitting up, and came over, placing the flat thing on a surface next to the nest-thing he was laying in.

_Just my fucking luck..._

"Oh good, you're awake!" The human had a funny voice, where he spoken differently from the merman. "How are you feeling?" He reached out a hand to Dirk, about to introduce himself, but the blond flinched and brought his arms up to covered his face.

"It's alright, I won't hurt you, I promise." He said calmingly, still having his hand out. "My name is Jake English. I found you on the beach hurt pretty badly, so me and my guardian grandmother took you in and treated your cuts. What's your name, and where did you come from?"

Dirk took a while to answer. Could he really trust this human? He seemed nice enough, but looks could be deceiving...

Deeming himself having no other choice, he answered, "I'm..Dirk. And, uh...I came from a place kind of far away, where it's cold and quiet, and dark a lot." The blond stared at the other boy's hand though, not sure what it was for.

Jake, believing the now identified Dirk had different customs in his land, explained briefly, "You link your hand with another person's and shake it lightly. It's a greeting here." To demonstrate, Jake took Dirk's hand and shook it gently, before letting it go and sitting down in the chair next to the bed. "I'm glad to know your name now. Do you have any idea what happened to you, and how you got hurt?"

Dirk felt his insides squirm with anxiety. How could he explain this in a vague yet believable fashion? He steeled himself, and scrapped up every bit of knowledge he knew of humans to weave a story.

"A couple of days ago, I was on a cruise ship with my older brother. The ship sunk in an unexpected storm, and I barely made it off in a life raft. I was adrift for several days, when another storm hit, and I was caught in it. I was thrown off the life raft, and the next thing I can remember, I woke up here."

Jake was silent for a minute. Dirk held his breath. But thankfully, Jake said, "Oh..I'm so sorry about that. I'm glad I found you when I did though."

_He bought it..._

"Yes, I appreciate it very much."

_I think I'll be able to work my around this human rather easily._

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A/N: I hope this chapter was somewhat decent. Reviews are appreciated, and I love you forever, those people who left reviews.

Chapter three is coming soon, I swear.

~Alley Cat


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